Poor hardest hit by heat wave

Cities open cooling centers to help residents.

July 19, 2011

HORIZON CITY, Texas (AP) -- The cinderblocks that make up Maria Teresa Escamilla's new home will do little to shield her from the triple-digit heat that has been scorching West Texas. She has no electricity yet, and the roof is not properly attached, leaving the interior exposed to the elements.

Escamilla has been living in an air-conditioned apartment that she can no longer afford. But when the lease ends in two weeks, she has to move -- a day she dreads because it means she'll have no escape from the searing temperatures.

With much of the nation in the grip of a broiling heat wave, few people are hit as hard as the poor, and few places are poorer than the ramshackle communities along the Texas-Mexico border known as "colonias."

The misery was widespread Monday, with the worst conditions blanketing a broad band from Texas to Minnesota and the Dakotas. Seventeen states issued heat watches, warnings or advisories. And the heat index easily surpassed 100 degrees in many places: 126 in Newton, Iowa; 120 in Mitchell, S.D.; and 119 in Madison, Minn.

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The high temperatures were nearly certain to persist for the entire week. Forecasters expected the extreme discomfort to spread soon to the East Coast.

In towns large and small, the withering heat was cruelest to those who could not afford air conditioning.

Built at the edge of the desert, the colonias often lack electricity and running water. People bought the land before zoning regulations were adopted, hoping that utility services would follow.

In downtown Minneapolis, where the heat index reached 106 degrees, the Salvation Army's Harbor Light Center threw open its doors for anyone who needed to cool off and drink a glass of ice water.

Chicago officials opened six cooling centers, many of them in lower-income neighborhoods, along with hundreds of air-conditioned public buildings such as libraries, park facilities and police stations.

Chicago authorities stepped up their high-heat precautions after a 1995 heat wave killed more than 700 people in less than a week. Now temperatures above 90 degrees trigger an emergency plan that includes city workers calling and visiting the frail and elderly.

In Oklahoma, the intense heat has generated a flood of applications from elderly and low-income residents for money to help pay their utility bills.

The Summer Cooling Assistance Program was launched July 11 and ended just three days later when all $22 million in the budget was paid out, said Rick Steen, director of field operations for the Department of Human Services in southwestern Oklahoma.